


blood spill in the pure snow

by embalmers



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: F/M, Fire Emblem: Three Houses Blue Lions Route Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-08
Updated: 2019-09-08
Packaged: 2020-10-12 16:13:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,437
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20567198
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/embalmers/pseuds/embalmers
Summary: To a six-year-old, the image that pale skin and hair made being stained with red had struck him as the epitome of beauty.





	blood spill in the pure snow

To a six-year-old, the image that pale skin and hair made being stained with red had struck him as the epitome of beauty, carving itself as the first memory he’d hold of his emperor. Edelgard never showed weakness like that anymore, no tears would be shed over the path she’d chosen. No amount of blood at her hands would allow her to be vulnerable like she had been in that moment ever again.

She’d cried so freely in his memory; he would never see that again. Tears and choked tiny sobs as she lay in the snow and writhing. Her hair would have blended in entirely with the snow if it weren’t for the blood splashed over it.

The sight was fixating. There really could have been no other moment in their early years together which would have stood out to him as much as that. Eyes fluttering under eyelids, opening in bright unrelenting fear as he called out her name. All she could muster in response was a slight turn of her head. It was like her hair was a sea merging into the snow. You could hardly notice where it started and ended. Hubert would never forget how he reached his hand out to her, a wet bloodied hand shakily reaching up into the air. It was him who grasped it and took her from the ice grave she was in. It was him who had carried the girl all the way back to the kingdom. It was him who had delivered her back into the safety of warmth and healing. It was him who was punished for not protecting her well enough.

When he had finally been allowed near her again, he never left her side if he could help it.

“Hubert…” she weakly sighed as she awoke, noticing him at her bedside.

“I am glad you are alright, Lady Edelgard.”

She was too tired to even notice the new way he said her name, as she drifted back off to sleep.

_"Hubert you keep calling me lady, did something happen?"_

_"Do not concern yourself with such trivialities, Lady Edelgard."_

_"A red ribbon today, Lady Edelgard," he notified her as he brushed her hair._

_It could never measure up to the blood all over her in his mind, but it would do. She had always looked best in red anyway._

When she had been ripped away from him, he had ended up in a similar state to how she was that day.

Children didn’t last very long in the snow after all.

All he had been trying to do was protect her. Get her back. He couldn’t do that when she was away from him.

As he was dragged back home, his wrists burned from being gripped so tight. There had not been a single shred of delicacy or care like he had shown to the barely breathing girl in his arms back then. Observing the red bruise on his small arms, he wondered if he hadn’t been with Edelgard that day, if anyone would have even found her body? No one would have heard those tiny broken sobs that day if he hadn’t been there to protect her.

White hair didn’t stand out like black hair did in snow.

She came back to him three years later with a dagger in hand as a gift and a hardened face. There was no sign of the girl who cried so freely to him, just pure unbridled rage at everything that had happened.

He always had some idea of the hardship she had been through; when you were the son of the Marquis you knew of the dead Hresvelg children. Whispers constantly of the cruelty they were subjected to, but it was all _just another sacrifice that had to be made_. It was _necessary_.

She told him of who’d done this, who had taken her from him. Her uncle, his own father and that stupid prime minister among others. It made him sick.

Lady Edelgard did not warrant any of the abuse or trauma she went through. But as much as he wanted to protect her, he couldn’t have stopped any of it. An 11-year-old could not run all the way to Fhirdiad in the snow. He could not erase the nightmares she went through or the pain she carried. All he could do now was be by her side and ensure that she no longer had to concern herself with the guilt of the bloodshed.

“Hubert, I swear, I will change this world.”

_You are Lady Edelgard’s servant!_

_You must protect her with your life!_

His father was an awful man for how he betrayed her, but he was grateful of what he had taught him. Whilst the Marquis had forgotten the tradition to House Hresvelg, he would never.

“As long as I live Lady Edelgard, I will be by your side. I will walk your path and do whatever it takes to achieve your goals. Never forget that.”

Grondor was a failure. They had lost many, the battlefield was full of flames and chaos.

He had gotten separated from her majesty.

Hubert was not one for panic nor anxiety even at the most stressful times. He would not succumb to it today.

Step one, find Lady Edelgard.

Amidst the flames and bodies, he rode a horse as black as his hair. Quicker to cover the ground, quicker to find her.

It brought back memories; he would never have allowed this carelessness to happen when he was younger. He was always by her side then, always.

He also knew that she was not so weak without his protection to die here. He would not allow her to fall in a place like this, she wouldn’t let herself either. The emperor still had much to be done.

Unlike the dark reds staining the once green field, a sudden flash of bright red, one he’d recognise anywhere caught his eye.

“Hya!”

With a whip of the reins, he was on his way to her.

As he approached, she was hunched over the ground, an unfitting stance from the one she put on in meetings or as the leader of the empire. For a second, he thought Edelgard was injured but as he jumped off the horse in urgency, she did not seem to be hurt in the slightest.

Reaching out a hand like he’d done years ago, he stood over the emperor on her knees.

Her expression revealed all, instead of tears there was emptiness and exhaustion, gazing at nothing. Instead of shivering limbs from the snow, it was stillness. The only thing that was the same was the blood staining her.

But even then, it wasn’t her own blood.

“Lady Edelgard, we must retreat.”

She didn’t snap out of the state she was in but registered his words enough to look at him.

Vulnerable. That’s all he could see her as right now.

That vile prince could have killed her like this while he was yards away and he would have been none the wiser.

It was his own fault for allowing himself to stray from her side like he had.

The heat from the flames surrounding them grew hotter.

“Lady Edelgard.”

She nodded quickly and took his hand.

He noted how her skin looked almost white in contrast with the blood all over her palm. Hubert took her hand anyway. It wasn’t like blood had ever bothered him.

They rode away from the battlefield in silence.

He never brought up what came over her on that day.

She was back to acting as a pillar of strength for the entire empire the next day.

Hubert savoured the sight she made like he had when she was bleeding out in the snow. Scenes like that were few and far between.

Careless.

That’s all he was these days.

He knew he should have insisted when she’d told come here. He knew he should have just stayed with her in the throne room instead of leaving her.

All he could taste was blood in his mouth and searing pain in his torso.

“Lady… Edelgard…”

As he bled out on the stone pavement, all that went through his mind was the spiralling thoughts of how he wouldn’t be able to protect her, how he had failed her. How she would die alone.

Hubert had broken his vow to stay by her side. Not even in death could he grant her some peace of mind; something so simple as not being alone.

_Edelgard von Hresvelg_

_1162 – 1185_

She was buried beside her uncle.

Hubert was buried beside his father.

**Author's Note:**

> OKAY FIRST OF ALL I MESSED UP and started writing this before i:  
a. saw edelgards support with lysithea  
b. finished blue lions route  
so i messed up with the white hair edelgard as a kid. she doesn’t have white hair as a kid...i fucked up. but i already had that whole part written when i finished the route so… im just gonna say lets pretend the experimentation happened before she got taken to the kingdom ;__; usually i wouldn’t make a mistake like this im so sorry
> 
> anyway this all spawned from huberts line in his support w edelgard saying how his first memory of her is her being injured
> 
> i dont have anyone checking these for grammar/spelling errors so sorry if there are any  
thanks for reading!


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